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Sunday, April 3, 2011

I got sort of dehydrated yesterday

It was a banner day yesterday at Casa de 'burbs. We started by zipping downtown to the Children's Museum to goof around. I renewed our membership last month, giving us another year of visits for $75. When we were done pretending to make tamales, using golf balls to test the laws of physics, building with blocks, making cars with big Tinker Toys and riding up and down in the elevator we went over to Toy Joy.

Toy Joy is the best toy store in the world. http://toyjoy.myshopify.com/ We could easily spend one thousand dollars every time we go there. That's why we don't go very often, but when we do it's a big treat. During yesterday's visit we got the added bonus of seeing a woman in the shop wearing denim hot pants, cowboy boots and carrying 2 little yappy dogs and saying "....I'm just really overwhelmed right now." to the older woman behind her that I'm assuming was her mom. I always have to bite the insides of my mouth to keep from laughing at people in some of the funkier places around town who are obviously not enjoying themselves. I have to wonder why they come in if they're not comfy with it. Why not just wait outside with the yappy dog? And, by the way, it says right on the big sign painted on the window that the soft serve is vegan.

It's gotten hot and humid here and I haven't gotten into the habit of drinking enough water. Yesterday, when we got home everyone else rested while I ran an errand to Lowe's for some stuff we needed. I realized I was low on liquids as soon as I was back in the car and got an iced tea. No, not the best thing but better than nothing.

When I'm not fully hydrated and I get that dried out loopiness I cuss a lot when I talk to myself. Yes, I talk to myself. Quite a lot actually. Because, I just gotta talk even if no one's around to listen. I'm driving my car, gulping my iced tea, talking out loud about something I can't remember but I do remember I was cussing fluently.

I walked in to the store through the garden section and thought 'Wow, it's fucking busy. Don't these people know you shouldn't work in the yard when it's this shitbomb hot? Wait until it's goddamn cooler before you start dragging 25 pound bags of goddamn potting soil around. Where the fucking wheelbarrows? If we buy another pile of dirt we need our own damn wheelbarrow. And I want one with 2 friggin' wheels' cause last year I had a fucking back ache. Wow! Look at that fucker! How much does this shit cost? That's not bad. Cool. I need a funnel. Where would I find a goddamn funnel? If it was an auto parts store I could find a motherfucking funnel. Jesus h, where's the funnels? Dammit, I don't want to wander around in tools all fucking afternoon. ' and many more minutes of f-word peppered thoughts.

I almost got online to blog a stream-of-consciousness entry just to see what would happen, but, I had to start dinner and by the time I was able to sit and blog I was hydrated and thinking with fewer bad words.

I had to go to Lowe's because the condensation line that drains water from our air conditioning unit was clogged. It's something that happens, it can be prevented by treating the line with bleach once a month but we forget. Since the water couldn't drain away it was puddling at the bottom of the closet where the forced air unit lives and then leaked into the house. The first thing we were going to try was a little bleach down the line and we needed a funnel to do that.

After Scott tried the nasty chemical and figured out that that didn't work, we knew the next step was to snake it out. But we didn't have a plumber's snake. While Scott used a wet/dry vacuum we borrowed from the neighbors to try and suck the blockage out, I tried to think of what we had around that we could use to poke down the pipe.

We have a dead vacuum cleaner in our garage that is going to go out with large item pick up at the end of this month. I cut the cord off and suggested Scott try using that, as I thought it would be flexible enough to manipulate down the pipe but would be stiff enough to push any blockages out.

I ran around the side of the house to see if any water came out where the draining is supposed to happen. About 30 seconds later a big blob of grey stuff came out like it'd been popped from a zit followed by a gush of water. Ka-pow!

I went and told Scott the pipe had given birth. We were very proud of our Macgyver like problem solving. Then we had lasagne, put the kids to bed and loafed around the rest of the evening.

As I said, it was a banner day.

Amanda's beauty tip of the day: Get a cute wide brimmed hat to give yourself some extra sun protection while you're outdoors.

About the Hip Housewife

I'm a graduate of the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts and a judgmental snob when it comes to restaurants. I know how food is supposed to taste. I've eaten a lot of food. I love food. I love that I live in a city that is getting to be really important food wise.
I have a friend who comes with me on my eating adventures who's just as big a restaurant snob as I am.
I also have a couple of great kids who love Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Goldfish crackers.